Improve Your Tomorrow

Legal name: Improve Your Tomorrow Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
462981774
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2014
Location
Sacramento, CA, US
Phone
(916) 299-3432
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Youth Development Programs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$18,720,047
Expenses
$16,031,258
Assets
$10,817,206
Liabilities
$3,962,525

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

24 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MICHAEL LYNCH (CEO AND SECRETARY)
  • JESUS ANDRADE (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • ERICA CONNER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • ARTHUR TURNER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • KARELTON THOMAS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • MICHAEL LYNCH (CEO AND SECRETARY): $255,880 total reported compensation
  • MICHAEL CASPER (COO): $225,600 total reported compensation
  • MENNE HALL (CHIEF PROGRAM/PEOPLE OFFICER): $180,199 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Improve Your Tomorrow (IYT) is the nation's largest organization dedicated to serving young men of color, providing school-based mentorship and college access programs to help them succeed in higher education and become leaders in their communities.

What it reported doing in 2024

Through our partnerships with school sites across sacramento, yolo, san joaquin, stanislaus, merced, contra costa, alameda, marin, solano, and san francisco counties, improve your tomorrow provided comprehensive support to nearly 5,119 young men of color. Our services included mentorship, member development, parent engagement, internship programs, college tours, and tutoring. We also expanded our impact by offering wellness sessions and college completion services, helping ensure our members are not only college-bound, but college-ready and supported through graduation.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 98% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 67
  • Transparency & Controls: 75
  • Accountability: 85
  • Sustainability: 49
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 62.8%; rating input score 63
  • Program expense ratio: 73.4%; rating input score 73
  • Fundraising efficiency: $28.45 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 90%; rating input score 90; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 14.4%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.67; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.37; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 9.5%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 33.5% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 33.5% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 35.4% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 8 operating locations identified
  • Where the money goes: 62.8% of revenue deployed · 73.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 10 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $11.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $256K · 24 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $222K reported
  • Consistency: 38 of 38 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 23/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.